It's all about making money. What is money for the CJS? It is less crime. Ultimately we want fewer people in jail, on parole, or under house arrest, fewer trials, less violence, fewer victims, less fear, less money spent on burglar bars and alarms, and on and on. In other words we want fewer people committing fewer crimes. Is this the goal?

The citizens have to buy in to the goal and whatever actions we decide to try. If the citizens are scared of the police and disrespect the laws there is absolutely nothing that can be done to improve the situation. If the criminals can intimidate witnesses, jurors, and victims we can't stop crime. If victims look to extra legal solutions like revenge killings, we are in a death spiral of ineffectiveness. We need the outrage of the citizens to make the big changes that it will take to address this big problem.

It will take support from all levels of government. Federal, state and local governments working toward the same goal will make the solution work. Legislators, cops, attorneys, judges, jailers and sociologists must be headed in the same direction. Authorities at odds with each other are part of the problem today. Duplicate systems and multiple jurisdictions just make dealing with crime so much harder and expensive

Ultimately we'd like to see the parts of the CJS itself work towards an optimum mix of legislation, enforcement, prosecution, rehabilitation, restitution, and isolation. Consistency across the metro area would keep areas from turning into safe havens. Technology can improve efficiency but it will only improve the solution after the Goal is selected and a plan created to work toward that goal.

Goldratt would tell that once you know the goal you need to do three things:

1. Increase throughput
2. Reduce inventory
3. Reduce operational expense

Here's how this approach might be applied to Criminal Justice:

Inventory is the people being processed in the CJS. In court, in jail, in rehab or in between, these people are expensive. Moving them though the system to a successful conclusion as quickly as possible must be achieved.

If the criminals themselves are viewed as the inventory in the CJS, a corresponding definition of what constitutes a quality finished good ready for sale must be a fully reformed criminal. Here is a citizen ready to reenter society with his debt fully paid and with the ability to pursue a good life free of future misadventure. He needs to be clear of his debt both to his victims and to the society that had to intervene to fix his life. He needs to be ready and able to enter a life acceptable to society (e.g. work).

There is significant doubt that we can actually rehabilitate criminals. An answer to this question would be of value. The current process turns out far too many "defective" finished goods. The criminal recidivism rates proves this point. "Factory rejects" reenter society, commit more crimes and ultimately cost the system more money. The view that our prisons are "schools" that teach advanced criminal technique seems to be generally supported. Graduates of the CJS are often considered dregs of society to be shunned. These facts make things worse. The CJS needs to be able to produce valuable, trustworthy contributors. Until we find a way to do this there is little else that can be done except isolating criminals from society.

Once we determine how we can produce a defect free "finished good" we can implement the process broadly. The documented working process at this point may be too expensive for universal implementation but it will be proving its worth in practice. Once it is working we can then go about optimizing the process and cutting into its cost. Reducing inventory would be achieved though removing bottlenecks and reducing the time spent by each criminal in the system. One outcome might be that sentences grow shorter. Restitution and rehabilitation would become the criteria for release rather than punishment.

Once we have a process we can look for more improvement. Just as industry looks to its supply chain today, our schools, families and society itself  become part of the system. Suppliers are driven by industry to deliver quality, defect free components and raw materials as the inputs to industrial processes. Schools, families and society are today producing the people who become the criminals of tomorrow and can do better. However this is not the first step.

We need to start with the Goal.